Daily acca tips: Victories for Mexico, Iceland and Portland
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Internationals and MLS dominate
The World Cup is tantalisingly close, but for now it’s still very much preparation time.
There are a number of international friendlies today, including Austria versus Germany and Belgium v Portugal.
And an evening dose of MLS ensures there’s plenty of top footy to get stuck into while we wait for the action to begin in Russia.
Here’s the Coral News Team’s tips…
It must be a wonderful time to be involved with Icelandic football. Straight from their heroics at the 2016 European Championships, they’re on their way to the World Cup for the very first time.
Their pre-Russia adventures continue with a home game against Norway.
The Norwegians were World Cup regulars themselves back in the 1990s, but have fallen since.
Norway have won just two of their last 13 away games, and they were at San Marino and Albania. Plus, Iceland sit a tidy 26 places higher in the rankings and will be fine-tuning their squad ahead of the World Cup.
Neither the Republic of Ireland or the United States of America will be in Russia, so the two sides are keeping themselves entertained with a friendly in Dublin.
This is actually a pretty important game for the Emerald Isle. They’re winless in four games and have scored only once in that time.
It’s their final match before the UEFA Nations League starts in September, so Martin O’Neill’s men need a morale and momentum-boosting result here.
Scotland are undergoing a transitional period under Alex McLeish, ahead of a sustained bid to qualify for the 2020 European Championships.
McLeish handed out seven debuts in their 2-0 defeat to Peru on Wednesday, so it’s likely he’ll continue tinkering when they play Mexico in the famous Estadio Azteca.
The hosts are in full World Cup-prep mode, so should have enough quality and intent to prevail.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s arrival at LA Galaxy hasn’t quite had the desired effect.
The Los Angeles outfit have lost five of their last seven games, conceding three or more on four occasions.
So they could be in trouble when they visit the on-song Portland Timbers. After a slow start, the 2015 champions are now flying, and head to LA seeking a seventh successive win.
Over in the Eastern Conference, Columbus Crew will be looking to maintain their place in the leading trio when they host struggling Toronto.
Columbus are unbeaten in seven, but even more impressively, have kept five clean sheets on the spin.
That could spell trouble for Toronto, who have won just three of their last 11 MLS matches. The Canadian side are also winless in five on the road.
All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing
